Under an innovative program for improving access to longer-term financing, the IIC will provide up to 30 million Argentine pesos (approximately $10 million) in local-currency loans to SMEs in Argentina. The loans will be funded by IIC borrowing on the local market and backed by a corporate guarantee from Garantizar. Garantizar is a mutual guarantee company (sociedad de garantía recíproca or S.G.R.) that provides loan guarantees to its participating shareholders. Fifty-one percent of its capital stock is held by private SMEs. The loan guarantees enable micro, small, and medium-size companies to access longer-term financing at interest rates that would otherwise be unavailable to them. This more affordable financing helps them become more competitive by increasing their working capital, lengthening the terms of their accounts receivable, upgrading their production facilities, or launching new product lines. The IIC will also invest up to 800,000 Argentine pesos (approximately $260,000) in the capital stock of Garantizar. The investment represents a shareholding of approximately 11 percent. This is the first time that a multilateral organization has participated in the share capital of a mutual guarantee company in Argentina. As a sponsoring shareholder, the IIC will contribute 1.2 million Argentine pesos (approximately $390,000) to Garantizar’s risk fund. The risk fund, which is part of Garantizar’s equity, is used to pay the guarantees granted to the participating shareholders. This operation is replicable by other mutual guarantee companies and SMEs in supply chains, either with the IIC or with other financial institutions.